Cloud Essentials: CompTIA Authorized Courseware for Exam CLO-001

A part of the popular Sybex Essentials series, this book tackles the basics of cloud computing, the pros and cons of public, private and hybrid clouds, talks about the different service models, strategies on cloud adoption, and touches on cloud security, privacy and compliance.

A part of the popular Sybex Essentials series, this book tackles the basics of cloud computing, the pros and cons of public, private and hybrid clouds, talks about the different service models, strategies on cloud adoption, and touches on cloud security, privacy and compliance.

About the authors

Kirk Hausman is an adjunct professor for the University of Maryland and Assistant Commandant for IT, PR, and Strategic Communications for Texas A&M University. He has been an ISO and director of IT services for numerous sectors, including sustainable energy technologies.

Susan L. Cook is an IT manager at Texas A&M University, specializing in enterprise risk assessment and compliance. She has master’s degrees in information technology and security management and holds several IT certifications.

Telmo Sampaio is the main trainer at MCTrainer.NET. He travels the world educating Microsoft employees and partners on different technologies, including cloud computing.

In fact, the application of this learning technique continues through all the chapters.

The book continues on to explain the various types of cloud models, the different organizational roles a cloud requires for working as expected, and the different service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, XaaS), and offers helpful examples.

You’ll learn how traditional technologies compare to their current cloud alternatives, and what the latter offer, especially when it comes to the business value of a move into the cloud. You’ll learn the basics of cloud infrastructure planning, and some strategies for cloud adoption and roll-out (depending on the service model).

You will discover the security risks and mitigation, the critical issues of privacy and compliance, legal risks, and so on.

Despite the breakneck speed of technological progress and the fact that this book was first published in June 2013, the content is still “fresh.”

There is a short appendix that addresses upcoming developments in cloud technology and deployments but it’s not very in-depth (though it does suggest some further reading).

The book is also touted as a good read for people planning to take the CompTIA Cloud Essentials (Exam CLO-001) exam and/or the EXIN Cloud Computing Foundation (EX0-116), and contains review questions and exercises.

Final thoughts

This book is ideal for people who don’t know much about cloud computing, and especially for those who work in IT in organizations that are considering adopting cloud services. It does not cover only the technical aspect of such a move, but also the business one, giving a better understanding of what such a move entails and can achieve. Experts in cloud deployment and security can skip it altogether.

All in all, it’s a good and easy-to-read-and-understand overview of the advantages of cloud security.

As a side note – and this doesn’t have anything to do with the book – if you are interested in learning about the cloud and cloud security, check out the latest issue of our (IN)SECURE Magazine, which is partially dedicated to the topic.